A Review of Valerie Snobeck at Simon Lee Gallery

Le monde, le continent, la France, etc…,etc…,la rue de Bizerte, moi

At Barnebys we had the pleasure of being invited to the private view of Valerie Snobeck’s exhibition at Simon Lee Gallery.

The main bodies of work in this gallery are the peels. Snobeck uses images sourced from archives, in this case, taken from the 1970s Documerica Project, which was set up by the American Environmental Protection Agency to document the state of the environment.

The way these peels are presented and the process in which they are produced makes them very beautiful and delicate. Each of these photographs were printed and then covered by hot plastic. This process is then repeated, and each print will gradually become fainter as the transfer picks up less and less ink. The peels are all arranged with the same system when placed on the wall. There are three degradations of each image, shown in company with another three degradations. These having been created from a blown up detail of the original image. If you number them from left to right, the equation being: 1-6-2,5-4-3.

''I am often asked if the peels I make are archival and how do we get these things off the wall? They are removed from a wall through a separation, through another peeling.''

As well as these captivating peels, Snobeck has provided us with some sculptures dotted around the room. Various glass pitchers which were fractured by ice expansion and repaired using metal armatures, displayed upon what looks to be vintage furniture. A mixed array of both old and new imprinted wooden sticks leans against the wall, these are the kind that are used for measuring the remaining levels of gas and fuel.